Charl’s resume in the 2011 prior to the Masters was quite phenomenal and definitely went under the radar. Let’s take a look;

2nd at Alfred Dunhill

4th South African Open

4th Africa Open

1st Joburg Open

8th Abu Dhabi

17th Match Play

14th Honda Classic

24th WGC Cadillac Championship

47th Arnold Palmer Invitational

30th Shell Houston Open

During the 2011 Masters

After finishing 30th in the 2010 Masters, Charl was familiar with the course and already had some major wins under his belt. He opened the 2011 Masters with a 69, good for 7th place at the time, but still had 2 bogies on his card.
His 2nd round was a 71, consisting of 3 birdies and again, 2 bogeys.
The third round also consisted of 2 bogeys, but was peppered with 6 birdies, giving him a 68 and a 2nd place standing heading into the final round.

After he opened his final round with a birdie, he holed out for eagle on the 3rd hole. After he bogeyed #4, Charl would par holes 5-14, then making 4 straight birdies to win the Masters. Incredible.

A big part of Charl’s win was that he was 2nd in the field in putting

His 66 was the lowest final round score at the Masters in 20 years.

This is your 2011 Masters Champion. Best of luck to Charl in the 2012 Masters.

Nike Golf had a decent showing at the 2011 PGA Championship. While Dyson was the top swoosher after Day 1, Vegas stole the thunder after day 2, both athletes being inside the Top 10 at one point or another. Then it was Charl Schwartzel’s turn who was T8 after the 3rd Round. Charl put up a 3rd round 66, while Francesco Molinari put up a 3rd round 67.

In the end, Charl Schwartzel picked up his 8th consecutive Top 30 in a Major and his 7th straight Top 20 in a major. Tiger disappointed and AK just missed the cut, but it was a fun event and I didn’t miss having Tiger in contention. I honestly feel bad for anyone that didn’t want the final round.

Here are the full results from the Nike Golf athletes, complete with their updated World Golf Rankings;

T12 :: Charl Schwartzel :: 71 71 66 71 :: -1

He’s just a stud. Woo woo woo

Pre-PGA World Ranking – 12
Current Ranking – 11

T34 :: Francesco Molinari :: 72 71 67 72 :: +2

I expected a bit better, but this was the first major that he made the cut at this year.

Pre-PGA World Ranking – 23
Current Ranking – 22

T51 :: Simon Dyson :: 68 72 71 75 :: +6

Got worst each round in terms of the field, but is playing really well.

Pre-PGA World Ranking – 49
Current Ranking – 53

T51 :: Jhonattan Vegas :: 70 68 74 74 :: +6

Weekend 74’s won’t cut it. Good stuff for his 2nd major though.

Pre-PGA World Ranking – 107
Current Ranking – 105

T72 :: Paul Casey :: :: 72 72 78 72 :: +14

At least he made the cut! He should have a really big bounce back year. That 78 was tough.

Pre-PGA World Ranking – 16
Current Ranking – 17

————— CUT (+4) —————

CUT :: Anthony Kim :: 74 71 :: +5

If 6 more guys were +5 or higher, AK would have made the cut. He actually played a great second round. A couple holes on Day 1 cost him.

Last week Nike Golf released the Athlete scripting for the PGA Championship, you can see that in the gallery below. For the convenience of our readers we’re supplying the links to the polos the guys are scheduled to wear at Atlanta Athletic Club. We hope this helps those of you who want to know the specific shirt a Nike athlete is wearing on a particular tournament day, and how to get it with a single click. You’ll find links to the polos the Athletes are scheduled to wear this week below the scripting gallery.

Good luck to all of the Nike athletes in the field at the PGA Championship this week!

It’s a major championship week, and the Nike Athletes on the PGA and European Tours are in Johns Creek, Georgia for the PGA Championship, the last chance at major hardware in 2011. The Nationwide Tour is in Missouri and the Euro Challenge Tour is in Norway. The Champions Tour and the ladies on the LPGA and Ladies European Tours have the week off. Here’s the full list of the Nike Athletes in the fields of the pro tournaments this week:

My name is Chris Wang and I am a long time NGNation reader. I live here in Atlanta, GA, and when the editors of this website saw that I was going to Round One of the PGA Championship, they asked me to do a small post on what it was like on the course.

So instead of just writing a post, I thought I’d write something that someone like me would like to read. I also thought that a review of the golf shots wouldn’t be interesting since all of us will see the highlights. So I thought I’d make fun comments about the day in general. So here it is, the Alphabet Soup for Round One at the Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC).

A: Anticipation. Not only have fans from Atlanta been excited about Glory’s Last Shot taking place in our backyard, but golf fans around the world have been anticipating the major tournament return of Eldrick Woods. And what a buzzkill it was!

B: Breathtaking. If you like traditional style golf courses, Atlanta is the place for you. This was my first time at the AAC and it is beautiful. Rolling hills, difficult tree lines, doglegs that require a sold-out strategy… What a fun course to host a major.

C: Cell Phones. For the first time, the PGA allowed people in the gallery to carry their cell phones on the course. This was awesome until 30,000 other people showed up and locked up the cell service. I had pics of Luke Donald to tweet!

D: Driver. The driver is a key club this week, not because of how much the players have to use it, but the opposite. I love the fact that the two starting holes (1 Tee and 10 Tee) all require a fairway wood (or 4 iron if you’re a stud like Alvaro Quiros). Playing smart golf will be key this week.

E: Elevation Change. There aren’t that many second shots at the AAC Highland Course that are true yardage shots. The mental wear for both the players and the caddies this week will be at a high level.

G: Gallery. People were everywhere. With Tiger teeing off early this morning, his gallery actually wasn’t too bad. However, Rory McIllroy’s gallery was out-of-control big. They were also very vocal. It reminded me of the 2001 Tiger galleries minus the annoying, “Get in the hole!” man.

H: Hot. It was so hot out there on the course. Even with the Atlanta summer breeze, the sun still won. And water was $4 for a 20 oz bottle of Aquafina…

I: Inside-out. Rickie Fowler’s swing is really dramatic…

J: Just a Par 3. Number 15 is just a 260 yard Par 3, but you guys mind if I tee it up?

K: Killer. Number 15 was the round killer for Tiger. I admit that I fist-pumped when he nestled his second shot on 14 so close to the pin (and converted the birdie). But when he dropped his tee shot into the lake that guards the 260 Par 3 number 15 (what a beast), everyone knew that it was going to be downhill from there.

L: Language. Tiger’s body language began to match his facial expressions after his water ball. I tweeted right before he teed off that he looked worn out. And from 15 on (remember that he started on the back nine), everything about Tiger looked worn out.

M: Magical. Steve Stricker was on another planet this morning. I followed his group (which included Nike Athlete Paul Casey), and Stricks was on fire. He was making shots with the worst lies and worst angles look like they were sitting up in the first cut and straight away.

N: Nike Golf. You knew I’d do that, right? There’s just something about the Nike staff equipment and apparel that stands out above everyone else. That 20XI staff bag is on point.

O: Opossum. Stewart Cink has had some solid rounds this summer. Hopefully he will put a complete tournament together this week, and not play dead over the weekend.

Q: Quality vs Quantity. Par 70 courses are smoke and mirrors. If you want your course to play hard and the scores to stay around level par, design it that way. Don’t take two strokes away from the field just because you want a 510 and 520 yard par 4.

R: RBC. With RBC being a main sponsor, there was a lot of Anthony Kim swag in the fan areas. From designing an AK golf bag, to displaying previous bags complete with AK autographs, the RBC fan zone was a corporate AK Love Fest. And I was at the party having a good time, having a good time.

S: Straight Bill. Flat brimmed hats were everywhere. Rickie Fowler is like WWE’s John Cena. He wears bright colors, kids love him because he’s the babyface, they want to wear his gear (I saw 10-15 kids 12-under wearing the Puma lid), and the gallery loves him. The PGA Tour can’t wait for pretty Rickie to get his first W.

T: Tremendous. The PGA did a great job with the grounds. Everything from concessions to restrooms to wifi spots to leaderboards, you could tell that a team of people put a lot of thought into where everything needed to be. East Lake needs to take notes.

U: Underrated. Matteo Manassero is ready to breakout onto the big stage. I wonder who will win a major first, him or Jhonny Vegas?

V: Vegas. There was a great pop for Jhonattan Vegas when he was announced to the first tee. With him and AK paired with Ernie Els, they had a variety of people following their group (age-demographic wise) that will hopefully get Vegas some new fans.

W: Win for the home team. A win for Stewart Cink at a major in Atlanta would be a huge story and wipe away the negative vibes of, “that green bald guy who beat Tom Watson.”

X: Xylophone.

Y: You. There were people just like you here in Atlanta today. It was awesome to see so many different races, and to hear different languages being spoken throughout the gallery. I know Atlanta has been a melting pot of people ever since the world knocked on our door in 1996, but it was fantastic to see golf being represented globally today.

Z: Zen. I hope Tiger finds what he’s looking for because I’m ready to see him back on top of his game. Even if he only wins one more major, I’ll take it. C’mon T Dubs. You got this man!

Chris Wang is a guest writer of NGNation. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Nike Golf or NGNation. Follow Chris on Twitter: @chriswang5.

The PGA Championship starts tomorrow at Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, and it promises to be to be an entertaining weekend of golf. The Hot-lanta weather and a difficult golf course, including four tough finishing holes starting with the the 260-yard par 3 15th, should make this a challenging examination of golf that will decide who will be the final major champion of 2011.

Nike Golf will be well represented at Atlanta Athletic Club this week, as there are eleven Nike Athletes in the field:

From these eleven athletes I’m picking five who I think have a chance of ending up with the Wanamaker in his trophy case, and here’s why:

Anthony KimA T5 at the Open Championship and a T14 at the Greenbriar show AK is ready to play. The final major of the year could be the place where AK breaks out for his next win and his first major.

Charl SchwartzelThe 2011 Masters Champion also finished 9th at the U.S. Open and 16th at the Open Championship. Charl has shown he’s ready to contend in major championships, and he’s gunning for his second of the year.

Lucas GloverLucas played well in the Open Championship, staying in the top 5 for the first three rounds (and leading after round 2) and finishing 12th on Sunday. A T23 at last week’s WGC Bridgestone Invitational served as good warmup for this week, and I think he’ll contend this weekend in Atlanta.

Simon DysonA T9 at the Open Championship, a win at the Irish Open and a T33 last week at Firestone shows Simon is playing well coming into Atlanta. You know he has his eye on winning his first major championship, and this could be the week.

Tiger WoodsTiger is striking the ball well and his putter has shown signs of life, but with only one tournament under his belt after a four-month layoff, Tiger could be seen as a long shot to win this weekend. However, with four PGA Championship victories on his resumé, you can’t count him out.

It’s sure to be an interesting four days of golf at Atlanta Athletic Club this weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the Nike Athletes handle the heat — from the weather, the golf course and their fellow competitors. Good luck to all of the Nike Athletes in the field of this week’s PGA Championship!

So who do you think will be hoisting the Wanamaker trophy on Sunday afternoon?